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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Probably only interesting to people who poop, April 26, 2007
Poop Culture is an excellent book about a topic that is largely (and unfairly) ignored.
Perhaps the greatest asset and the greatest weakness of the book is its breadth. The author covers many different approaches to the topic--from the psycho-social elements of poop (i.e. shame) to the history of the toilet to cultural symbolism to poop in art to the economic/ecologic effects of the way we as a society deal with our poop. It's at once odd and heartwarming to see a diagram of the best way to poop (squatting) or talk of South Park in the same book that also contains theoretical musings on Jonathan Swift and Marcel Duchamp.
Underneath the entertaining history and stories about poop there exist some fundamental and very important issues. For example, our culture's shame of defecation translates into a rather unhealthy and irrational way of dealing with poop on a practical level--as evidenced by our toilet and sewer design. Praeger provides some greener alternatives to the way things have been done in the past.
In short, this is the first book on poop since Dominique Laporte's history of French shit that I would call top notch. It's got interesting history, it's accessible (though I could do without some of the puns), it's got great illustrations (especially in the chapter on scatological art), and it puts Martin Luther, Milan Kundera, Rabelais, Wim Delvoye, and Mr. Hankey in stimulating conversation with one another.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
We are, therefore we poop., May 2, 2007
I'll avoid the obvious jokes any assessment of a book entitled Poop Culture instantly elicits. In fact, that a reviewer should feel somehow compelled to open with such an announcement of rhetorical self-restraint merely confirms the need for Praeger's valuable study. What is more, carrying it around on my cross-campus rambles as I mull over my endorsement - for this is, indeed, an earnest recommendation - I found myself self-consciously turning it face down, slipping it in a folder, or burying it under other books. I have been provoked once too often by the puzzled, inquisitive glances of my students and colleagues who had quickly taken in the (far too) bold and (gratuitously) capitalized title. Seriously, you can easily decipher the thing from 30 feet away! And believe me, I actually tested it. As shameful as pooping is, to invoke Praeger's dominant theme, to be caught reading about it is almost as bad, which is yet another confirmation of the need for such a work.
Praeger sifts the pertinent literature, both contemporary and historical - much as one of the founding scatological fathers, Rabelais, mentions early modern apothecaries sifting through children's excrement during cherry season for the precious pits - and produces a learned yet humorously readable and engaging treatment for what is perhaps the most universal of Western neuroses, what sociologist David Inglis, cited by Praeger, terms the "bourgeois fecal habitus." Moreover, he has much of use to say on the environmental costs and ultimate unsustainability of that habitus, which, as he demonstrates, we have forced upon ourselves in the name of civilization. At a moment when Western, but also increasingly Eastern, addiction to fossil fuels looms large in crisis literature, Praeger's exploration (and indictment) of our addiction to an unhealthy poop culture is timely critique indeed.
To riff on Paul Provenza's own Cartesian riff in the foreword ("I stink, therefore I am"): "We are, therefore we poop." Praeger provocatively and successfully blends both entertaining and serious thought in helping us better to understand this foremost among existential truths.
Jeff Persels, co-editor of Fecal Matters in Early Modern Literature and Art: Studies in Scatology
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Political And Cultural Implications Of Poop(ing), May 10, 2007
Discussion of bodily functions and waste disposal issues has traditionally been classified in most cultures as 'too much information.' Victorian mores were obsessed with depicting sexuality and anything regarding the body as 'shameful.' These attitudes exist today, influencing a huge segment of the population which thinks that, beyond toilet training, going to the bathroom is vile and disgusting.
Enter David Praeger's 'Poop Culture,' a well-documented and researched, intellectual outing of a mostly-closeted subject. This book follows a timeline from our earliest, food-gathering ancestors and their completely laissez-faire attitude toward waste disposal through the development of privies and cesspits to the beginnings of our modern infrastructure/sewer systems and flush toilets.
There's also humor, medical advice and pop culture here, presented in a non-sensational, thoughtful manner with unique sociological and cultural perspectives. A healthful, enlightening read.
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